Tips on Technology as used by the Small and Mid-Sized Business
Customer Premise Equipment
This term in actuality does make some sense. It’s equipment that is located on the site of the customer (usually referenced to by the Telecommunications Carrier, Voice or Data). This could be equipment that is owned by the carrier or, more commonly, owned by the customer. Depending on who owns the equipment depends on who is responsible for its repair.
There is pretty much one thing that will surely happen with any gadget. One day it will stop working.
There are many reason for it to stop working. The most common is that the battery that came with it will fail stop supplying power will refuse to recharge. Or it may because you forgot to take your cellphone off of your person in the restroom and it found some standing water.
When this happens the question is; Do I have it fixed or do I replace it?
One thing you need to do is ask, How dead is it?
A bad battery can be replaced.
A device that took a swim in the toilet is one that gets replaced. You may laugh or giggle at that, but ask around and you’ll be surprised at how many gadgets take a swim in the toilet, in the sink or even in a real body of water such as river or lake.
The next question is; How much will it cost? To make a good decision you need to get both the cost for the repair as well as the cost for the replacement.
A replacement cellphone battery may cost $30.00, but you maybe able to get a new cellphone for just a few dollars more. Of course there could be an added cost to that; you may be required to renew your contract. That’s no big deal if you are satisfied with your service and planning to continue after your current contract expires. However if you are unhappy with service and thinking about leaving for another carrier, you may not want to go that route and replacing the battery may be the way to go.
I suggest to people to use this rule to determine the time to replace or repair. If the repair cost is less than 50% of the cost of replacement, do the repair. Otherwise purchase new.
But there are other factors to consider. How old is the gadget? If it’s more than a year old may want to subtract 10% for each year of service. In other words for a gadget that’s a year old if the repair cost is 40% of new then have the repair done. Over 2 years 30%.
If it’s three-year-old or older it is probably time to replace even if it’s less than 20% of the cost of a new one to repair. With the speed technology changes it’s probably three version or more behind anyway.
Then at times you can get lucky. Especially it you are good with your hands and have some knowledge of how things work. You may be able to fix it yourself. If that’s the case your cost for repair could be reasonable since the cost is just for the part and not labor. Your time is free. But is it? I guess you may need to figure how valuable is your time and whether it’s worth your while to repair.
The best plan though is to always have a replacement plan, that in itself may give you your answer.
Once the useful life of any electronic device that uses a battery, be certain to dispose of it in the proper manner. The elements that are used in batteries Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion) and Small Sealed Lead (Pb) of items such as cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote control toys should be recycled and not thrown in the trash. Information on recycling batteries can be found at Call2Recycle.org
© 2006-2008 Steven G. Atkinson – All Rights Reserved
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Steven Atkinson is the author of Technology Tips for Small Business
Verizon and the two unions representing communication workers made an agreement prior to the self-imposed deadline. They agreed to a three year contract. As part of the contract Verizon will add jobs and allow other jobs currently not union jobs to become union jobs. The contract will expand bargaining rights, provide good health care for both active and retired workers, and increase wages and pensions.
Also in the News:
Did you receive an CNN.com alert? It’s probably a spam. Internet users have been hit hard by a fake message that says it’s a CNN News alert. A Common subject lines has been “CNN Alerts: My Custom Alert” and listing stories that appear to be actual stories or ones that seem plausable.
Users who click on the links and download a bogus Flash update have been trapped in an endless loop of pop-ups.
The talks are continuing, but apparently not as fast as the Unions would like. They have set as 12:01 AM, August 11, 2008 as the deadline to reach a new agreement. Otherwise they may begin a strike.
The parties are still in negotiations as of Friday afternoon 8/8/08 at the time when this is written.
The unions are The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). They represent Verizon’s technicians and customer service representatives. The major points that are part of the negotiations are over health care and job security provisions.
Note:
I originally reported that the Strike would begin if an agreement was not met by 12:01 AM, August 11 ,2008. The Unions have actually set that as the deadline to reach a new agreement before setting a new Strike date.
At the strike deadline the Unions decided to put a hold on the strike. They are still talking and seeing progress in those talks.
This is not unusual and has happened before. And just because they talking doesn’t mean that they won’t go on strike. They can call for a strike anytime between now and the time that an agreement is made.
The workers will be continuing to work under the terms of the previous contract until either an agreement is reached or a Strike is called.
A PIC freeze is a request to the local carrier that in most cases will prevent the long distance service from being changed to another, usually unauthorized, carrier without written notice from the consumer. A situation call Slamming occurs when an authorized person changes long distance service, often to one that cost more.
PIC - Primary Interexchange Carrier. Each Long Distance carrier have their own code that tell the local carrier to whose system the long distance call should be sent. This code is called the PIC Code, sometimes, PICC.
The two main Unions for workers at Verizon have announced that their members have voted to authorize a strike in a contact is not reached by the end of the current contract, August 2, 2008.
It does seem that at he end of each contact term the side disagree enough on terms of a new contact that a strike is threaten and there was a Two-week Strike 3 years ago before the current contact was agreed upon.
How will a strike affect the small business? Perhaps not at all, however during a strike, if you have a problem with service it may take longer to get have repairs performed. Requests for new and/or additional services will take longer. Some request may not even begin until after the end of the contact.
Use Reusable Items
Use Mugs with advertising for coffee and water. Give each employee two mugs, one to use at their office workstation and another to use at home. When serving coffee to a client or prospective client give them a mug promoting your business to take with them.
Read Then Print
For some it seems as if the need is to print the email attachment and then read it. The correct order is to read the document on the computer and then print as needed. Do not print the file or the email unless it is needed. Saving paper saves trees and saves energy. If you must print remember to …
Recycle
Recycle when you can. Make it easy to recycle by placing recycle bins around the office. Soon everyone will not only be recycling at the office but away from the office as well. Also consider using recycled and environment friendly office supplies. It works both ways.
Car Pool
Encourage employees to ride together. You could give those who have joined a car pool a reserved spot near the door. Unless there is an underlying reason, have people who would be attending the same meeting ride together and not take individual vehicles. Think about other ways to ‘car pool’ such as placing an order for office supplies once a week instead as needed to reduce the need for the delivery truck to come to your door with one item or scheduling meetings with clients in the same general area on the same day. This isn’t car pooling, but use technology. Conference calls, both voice and video or use the internet to conduct meetings with members of your team or with clients.
Reduce Energy Consumption
Use task lights instead of over abundant overhead lighting. Adjust heating and cooling thermostats a couple of degrees cooler or warmer depending on the season. Turn off lights in unused areas. Put computers, printers and copiers to sleep when not in use. Turn them off at night. Look around to see what may be drawing electric current when not in use. Anything that has an external transformer plug is probably using a small amount of energy at all times. Put them all on a power strip and turn them off when not in use. When was the last time the HVAC system checked? Is it working efficiently? Has a new filter been installed? A dirty filter reduces circulation and efficiency.
Replace
Many older electronic appliances use more energy than a new energy efficient model. That old refrigerator that was donated may be using more energy than the cost of use and purchase of a new one. A new LCD computer monitor uses less energy than a CRT model and laptop computers generally use less than a desktop. How old is the copier or laser printer? The saving of energy costs can pay for the replacement in a short period of time.
© 2008 Steven G. Atkinson – All Rights Reserved
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Steven G. Atkinson is the author of the book Technology Tips for Small Business. The book offers over 55 informational tips to assist the small business owner or office manager better understand the technology they use every day.
Term:Night and Weekend
A time of day term used by cellular carrier for times when rates are reduced and in many case free and unlimited. The time of the beginning of the Night varies from carrier to carrier, so it’s good to understand when this time starts. A carrier that begins their night rates earlier may allow you to purchase a smaller ‘minute’ plan, depending on what hours the phone is used.
Carrier may also offer ‘free and unlimited’ minutes on holidays. But it’s best to understand exactly what holidays may or may not be covered.
Probably more than you realize. The cost of per minute charges from telephone carriers may be low, but you can’t just say it only cost a few cents for your employee to have a personal telephone call. While the employee is on the telephone they are still on the payroll. You may be paying a carrier less than a dollar, but a ten-dollar an hour employee, it’ll cost another five dollars and you haven’t even factored in the cost of benefits.
Determining whether personal calls are allowed or how often, should be made in concert with the Human Resources department and part of an employee policy. It may also be wise to use a bit of common sense in the determination too. The personal call may be from a child giving the employee ‘peace of mind’ that everyone’s home safe. It may actually save in the long run.
© 2006-2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved - tt4sb.com
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